A tie-in to the X-Men event, Age of X, that gives us a look at how other heroes are changed in this world. In this case we have two stories, one starring this world’s version of the Avengers and the back-up starring Spider-Man.

The first story shows the first team-up of this group, the first time they are thrown together and made to work together. This is a group of messed up individuals and it shows. They can’t function as a unit and they end up failing at their assignment.

I wish I knew what was the different event, what caused this world to be so different from the regular MU, Earth 616. It might help to understand how these characters are so radically different. Most of the mutants are relatively the same. But the Avengers are extremely different.

How did Wolfsbane end up working with The Four? Why is Jessica Drew darker skinned? How did Tony Stark end up a disintegrating husk in his armor? It’s hard to get into the story because they are so radically different. It’s like the writer didn’t decide to take Age of X to a logical point, he just said “how badly can I mess these people up?

For example, why was Banner doing a different experiment? Why didn’t he end up doing the one that caused his transformation in the first place? Was the event that changed this world that far back? Mutants didn’t start showing up until after Banner’s transformation. So he should still be the Hulk.

This makes it difficult for me to enjoy this story. It highlights everything that is wrong with alternate universe stories.

The Spider-Man tale is decent. It’s just Spider-Man sacrificing himself so a pregnant Mary Jane can escape to Europe.

But this also helps show how incomplete Age of X is. If Europe is safe for mutants, why don’t all the mutants just flee there? They could easily cross the ocean and be safe. Why hasn’t this happened?

Pham’s art is decent. Not his best, but not his worse. He has fun with the different look Avengers. And it’s nice to see his work without the metallic sheen that the colorist in Chaos War gave it. Davidson’s work reminds me of Marcos Martin, who is doing the latest Amazing Spider-Man issues. It’s clear and crisp with tight lines.